Kiwein

The following story is written by Evgeny who joined the Roxette performance at the New Wave Festival on tuesday. Read about his adventure in Latvia:

I don’t know, how long my story will be… Time will show.
Everything has started this spring when I with my Bulgarian friend Emil considered a trip to Jurmala. But we considered so long that the cheapest tickets were sold out. And the date was closer and closer, and there were a few tickets day after day. And a couple of weeks back they were sold out too.
But one day, purely casual (though casual is not casual at all) I entered a Website seeking for tickets again, and luckily there were tickets of 20 Latvian Lats (25 Euros). Then I didn’t think for far too long. I had to get my ticket in Riga in the Congress Hall. As a result, I had only bus tickets from Moscow to Riga and back.
On Tuesday morning, on July, 28th, I arrived on the Riga bus station without any adventures at all. Went to an exchanger, therefrom to the Congress Hall. At last I had my ticket to the show.
I had a little walk across Old Riga on foot and then I went to the railway station. I went to Jurmala by electric train. In half an hour I arrived in the Dzintari railway station. I thought that Roxette had already arrived to Latvia and had already checked in the hotel. But I didn’t find them in the hotel. There was only Soso Pavliashvili, a quite famous Russo-Georgian singer.
Then I went to my hostel in the centre of Jurmala where I slept and after that I ironed my evening suit. I went to Dzintari concert hall back to look at celebrities on the red path. I came in time. After 5 minutes C&C, Jonas and Pelle arrived in a van there. I had only time to cry out their names and greetings in Swedish. Someone noticed me. Then there appeared cars with Gessle and Dimberg, and then with Marie and Mikael. There was a big distance between me and they and therefore there was no possibility to greet them.
Then I went to buy a red rose which I wanted to present to Marie personally. The question was – how to do it?
Having come back I met Vlad – a fan of roxette from Latvia and a friend of mine. We went to watch how roxette rehearse their songs. It was not clear, whether Per sang live or it was pre-recorded. After some minutes the gates were open. I said goodbye to Vlad. At the beginning I stood near the left camera. But when securities asked the visitors to leave to another place, I started to search for a vacant seat in a VIP-hall. I found it precisely in the 8th row, near to that place where I stood. My impudence was unlimited at that time, and I went thru the VIP-guests, making my way to the treasured seat.
At last I saw Alla Pugacheva, a huge Russian star. But from all our Russian singers I really liked the performance by Lev Valeryanovich Leshchenko. Such a fantastic performance! He is a real gifted performer!
Of course I often found myself being bored while the whole hall clapped to and praised the Russian music stars. I was absolutely impudent that night.
And then at last roxette assemblers ran out on stage. Then Christoffer, Clarence, Jonas and Pelle appeared. Presenters announced that there will appear the idols of millions of fans. I cried: ROXEEEEEEEEEEEEETTE!!!!!! All VIP-guests jumped up from their seats. Then Per and Marie walked on stage. Silence. I cried again: Marie, I love you!!! It was visible and audible, that the whole hall started to laugh. I was very happy to see Marie and Per together again!
Roxette started with The Look. I cried out: She’s got the look!
Marie tried to rock the audience that night and Per stamped his leg in his manner. It was very funny. The people here and there stood up and sang along.
Then the darkness fell and the first accords of Listen to your heart started to spread around the concert hall. In my opinion, it was the best song in their performance that night. In the end Marie made a new pose. I had a sense that Marie would burst into tears. Very powerful!
The third song was It must have been love. On the screen there was Igor Nikolaev, another Russian famous male singer who started to tick his step in the song. And the last song was Joyride. At the very end of this song I pulled out my fading rose from a pack and started to make my way towards the steps leading the stage. Roxette finished the song, the securities did not pay the slightest attention to me. I confidently went towards Marie. Shares of seconds I stood near to her while she thanked the audience for their applause. And then I told Marie that the rose was from me personally and that I loved Marie very much. I was on the seventh sky… Marie embraced me, and I kissed her on her cheek.
Then I heard Gessle saying: Hej man! I did not expect at all  that he would pay any attention to me. We shook hands. And in the end I shook hands with Christoffer. The night of handshakes, the kiss and embraces.
When the concert ended, I went to the side stage. But it was clear that Roxette had already left to the after-party and unfortunally I had no invitation.
Nevertheless I arranged a small after-party to myself – I bought a bottle of Fanta, added some ice into the glass and went to a bar where there was an “online” broadcast by Latvian TV channel LNT. They, by the way, showed all 4 songs.
Next day I spent in Jurmala. I took a stroll on this small town. And then I went to the beach. I bathed in the Gulf of Riga. Had burnt there completely.
So this is how my two days in Jurmala passed. Simply great they passed!